The Tyranny of Dumb Book Titles

Hey, is that a cli-CHÉ Guevara t-shirt? In his newly released book, The Tyranny of Clichés: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas, Jonah Goldberg argues that liberals craftily use innocuous-sounding yet hackneyed phrases such as “social justice” and “diversity” to obscure their nefarious intentions. Never mind that issue-framing is nothing new in American politics and that conservatives are prettydarn goodat it. And never mind that Goldberg’s last book, Liberal Fascism, indulged in the very argument-by-sloganeering that he now decries.

Let’s focus on the book’s title, a call to arms against trite reductionism—which just happens to echo the title of no fewer than 52 previously published books, including:

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Did you see that Mother Jones is launching a new Corruption Project? Check it out, and if our plan makes sense to you, we hope you'll help us raise $500,000 and go all in.

THE MOTHER JONES CORRUPTION PROJECT
We're crowdfunding to hire and build a new beat focused on systemic corruption—investigating how democracy and the rule of law are being undermined by those with wealth and power. Read why we believe this is what the moment demands, and please help fund it with a tax-deductible donation today.

THE MOTHER JONES CORRUPTION PROJECT
We're crowdfunding to hire and build a new beat focused on systemic corruption—investigating how democracy is being undermined by those with wealth and power. Read more, and please help fund it with a tax-deductible donation today.